10 Christmas Stories Every Father Should Read to His Children – Crisis Magazine

When St. Nick drives his miniature sleigh full of toys drawn by eight tiny reindeer to the snowy housetop, and drops to the sooty hearth below, the paterfamilias is bidden to attend. It is the father who hears “the prancing and pawing of each little hoof,” and springs from his bed to stand witness and …

power as a man to witness to the saving truth of Jesus Christ.

Top 5 Catholic Man Blogs

It seems like my wife is always finding some new blog or podcast geared towards Catholic women and Catholic moms, to the point that I probably can no longer count them all on my own ten fingers. Now this is all great, because women can find a lot of affirmation and encouragement to carry out their particular vocations. But it got me to thinking: What is out there for Catholic men? As time goes on, the more and more I am convinced that to rebuild and restore masculinity is to rebuild and restore this failing world. So I’m going to share my top 5 online Catholic Manistries (pun *chuckles*) to make you a better man.

THOSECATHOLICMEN.COM Subscribe to this site, and you’ll get a very great looking and content rich resource. This one does not dominate your inbox, and the email newsletter, Gird Your Loins, is packed with great content and often uplifting and challenging insight. Active on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, I think this ministry is forging the way for many Catholic men. Also worth mentioning is what sounds to be a fantastic program called Exodus, a 90 day journey of freedom from whatever may be enslaving the full purpose of your masculinity. With a variety of contributors from many walks of manly life, from priests to dads, you’re sure to find something that will speak to you! Check them out and subscribe!

CATHOLICGENTLEMAN.NET No, this is not the blog you’re reading right now. To set the record straight, The Catholic Gentleman has been online for a few years longer than ours, although we may have been mistaken for one another from time to time. It’s actually the first Catholic Man site that I came across ever, and if you’re ever searching for something to do with Catholic Masculinity, The Catholic Gentleman is sure to show up in your search results. The feel of this site is definitely classy and is authentic to everything you imagine when you think of Masculine Catholic civility, and the handsome retro photo theme and captions really say it all! Convert, founder, and author, Sam Guzman, comes highly referenced, and I’m glad to call him a brother and friend in Christ. Don’t delay in checking this one out!

THEPORNEFFECT.COM While strictly not targeted at only men, it is targeted at the high, if not full percentage of men who struggle with pornography addiction and temptation. The Porn Effect hits it where it really hurts when it comes to addressing the problem plaguing masculinity and the world. Founder, Matt Fradd, lives and breaths this ministry and is one of the foremost catholic speakers on the topic. With a great lineup of contributors, and content that will shock and disturb, but also inspire and create hope, it’s a source you’ll surely want to check out!

THENEWEMANGELIZATION.COM I have not even begun to explore the potential of this site. It is so packed with resources that you may not know what to do. As it’s name suggests, The New eMANgelization aims the cannon of Vatican II’s New Evangelization directly at men. They have a fantastic article called The Catholic “Man-Crisis” that will enlighten you to the gravity of your own masculinity. Also be sure to check out the resources on their Catholic Man Night and see if you can organize or connect with one where you are! Check it out!

CATHOLICDADSONLINE.ORG This site is the hub of Catholic Dadness. Unfortunately, it currently seems to be at a standstill after first starting to publish content way back in 2007. But just because it may not be recent, doesn’t make it irrelevant. They claim faithfulness to the Church, but as their name suggests, their target is more in the line of fatherhood within the vocation of marriage. Still worth a look!

CATHOLICGENTLEMANSGUIDE.COM For now, I’ll put our own site here at the end of the list. If you haven’t explored our Guide Series’, then do so here. This site was created to be a light and encouragement to Catholic men of all walks of life and to offset, in such a minor way, the evil online that destroys masculinity. I appreciate you for your readership today, and I encourage you to subscribe and receive all the latest posts from yours truly at CatholicGentlemansGuide.com!

This by no means exhausts the resources out there for Catholic men, as many may exist beyond my knowledge. But for now I wish it was difficult to narrow it down to a list of top ten, rather than be challenged to come up with 5! So here’s where you come in: If you know a good online Catholic resource for men, type it in to the comments below, or contact us by email and we’ll check it out! Brotherhood and Fraternity are two masculine virtues that are necessary for us men if we’re ever going to change the world for Christ. We not only need to bond together in person and in our communities, but the internet is a tool that is enabling us to create a bond of Catholic men that spans the world, and that, my brothers, is a force that can make great change….starting with you and I.

By the way, if you’re on Twitter, consider subscribing to Catholic Men United, to get the latest tweets from a list compiled of Catholic Men’s groups, conferences, and resources!

A vigil in Dublin in October commemorating the fifth anniversary of the death of Savita Halappanavar, who died after she was denied a medically recommended abortion following a miscarriage.CreditNiall Carson/Press Association, via Associated Press

DUBLIN — When Ailbhe Smyth was 37, voters in Ireland approved a constitutional amendment that banned abortion in nearly all cases and committed the nation to the principle that a pregnant woman and her fetus have an “equal right to life.”

Next year, when Ms. Smyth, a former professor and chairwoman of the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, will be 72, Irish voters are expected to remove or alter that amendment in a new referendum that could give Ireland’s Parliament the freedom to legislate on the issue and write more flexible abortion laws.

What are the driving forces behind this significant shift in voter attitudes toward abortion and other social issues?

Ireland was long a bastion of Catholic conservatism, a place where pedestrians might tip their hats and hop off the footpath when a priest walked past. But economic and technological changes helped propel a shift in attitudes that accelerated with the unfolding of far-reaching abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church in the 1990s.

Over a generation, Ireland transformed from a country where 67 percent of voters approved the constitutional abortion ban to one where, in 2015, 62 percent voted to legalize same-sex marriage.

Ireland moved to the left on other social issues, too. It decriminalized homosexuality in 1992, removed restrictions on the sale of contraception in 1993 and legalized divorce in 1996. The Irish voted twice, in 1992 and 2002, to permit abortion if the mother were deemed a suicide risk. In 2015, the country passed a gender identity law favored by transgender rights groups.

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Prime Minister Leo Varadkar of Ireland said that the abuse scandal had led to “the demise” of the Catholic Church.CreditPaul Faith/Agence France-Presse — GettyImages

‘A Disastrous Effect’

Priests once enjoyed great social and political power in Ireland, but the abuse scandal led to “the demise of the church,” the center-right prime minister, Leo Varadkar, who is 38, biracial and gay, said in an interview in September.

That would have been a politically unspeakable phrase for an Irish leader in the not-too-distant past.

Satan is Highly Intelligent—and an Arrogant Idiot

The devil is a pathetic joke and a cosmic fool and failure.

Satan was silly enough to actually think that he could entice Jesus to sin and diversion from His ministry. He was too ignorant in his evil irrationality to know that his scheme was doomed to failure from the beginning. We give the devil too much credit. He is an idiot and simpleton as well as a “bad guy.”

I say he’s stupid. How else should we describe a creature who was present with God as His highest angel, yet chose to give that up and rebel? I can think of nothing dumber and more ridiculous. The devil is more pathetic than anything else. He hates when people don’t cringe in fear before him (assuming they believe in him in the first place).